Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
@emmjaymurphee.bsky.social
•Prof., Gender & Sexuality Stds., U. Illinois Springfield uis.edu/wgs
•Founding member, UIS United Faculty uisufinfo.wordpress.com/
•LGBTQIA+ studies, critical men's/masculinity studies, U.S. art/visual culture history.
•Founding member, UIS United Faculty uisufinfo.wordpress.com/
•LGBTQIA+ studies, critical men's/masculinity studies, U.S. art/visual culture history.
Pinned
Living Out Loud: An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture
Living Out Loud: An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture offers students an evidence-based foundation in the interdisciplinary field of LGBTQ Studies. Chapters on history, diversity, da...
www.routledge.com
In 2019 I co-edited this textbook designed to support Intro to LGBTQ Studies college courses. Intended to offer a central text for such courses, it's sized to allow course customization with other readings. Unusually, it includes a chapter on LGBTQIA+ sexual behavior and sexual health. #AcademicSky
Rich people stop giving money to Harvard challenge 2026
December 31, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Rich people stop giving money to Harvard challenge 2026
Highly recommend Alice T. Friedman's Queer Moderns: Max Ewing's Jazz Age New York (Princeton, 2025). Offers both a panoramic view of queer avant-garde figures and a focus on the relatively unknown socialite, pianist, photographer, and collector, Max Ewing.
Queer Moderns
A richly illustrated history of the glittering world of queer artistic life in the 1920s and ’30s
press.princeton.edu
December 30, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Highly recommend Alice T. Friedman's Queer Moderns: Max Ewing's Jazz Age New York (Princeton, 2025). Offers both a panoramic view of queer avant-garde figures and a focus on the relatively unknown socialite, pianist, photographer, and collector, Max Ewing.
In some ways, Pluribus is an old story. Fear of ego dissolution within the homogenous mob go back (at least) to mid-19th c. Europe. And it's not like sci-fi hasn't treated this before: Invasion of the Body Snatchers; The Blob; the Borg; The Matrix. Why another fear-of-assimilation story and why now?
Pluribus review – the audacity of the Breaking Bad creator’s new TV show is incredible
It takes some chutzpah to make television like this. Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn is the only US citizen immune from an alien virus that makes everyone in the world supremely happy – and it’s a ...
www.theguardian.com
December 26, 2025 at 4:50 PM
In some ways, Pluribus is an old story. Fear of ego dissolution within the homogenous mob go back (at least) to mid-19th c. Europe. And it's not like sci-fi hasn't treated this before: Invasion of the Body Snatchers; The Blob; the Borg; The Matrix. Why another fear-of-assimilation story and why now?
Looks like the sanctioned T.A. will pursue redress through the courts. OU will probably settle out of court but a monetary settlement won't fix harm to the T.A.'s career and reputation.
This could all have been handled so differently...
This could all have been handled so differently...
Texas A&M won’t reinstate fired lecturer despite findings
A vice chancellor upheld the firing of Melissa McCoul, seen in a viral video being confronted by a student on her gender identity teachings, saying the termination was done with “good cause.”
www.texastribune.org
December 26, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Looks like the sanctioned T.A. will pursue redress through the courts. OU will probably settle out of court but a monetary settlement won't fix harm to the T.A.'s career and reputation.
This could all have been handled so differently...
This could all have been handled so differently...
If you hazard a look, you can't blame others for what you see!
___________
Dec 1948 Christmas cover of Heart's Sunday newspaper supplement The American Weekly. Artist: J. C. Leyendecker.
___________
Dec 1948 Christmas cover of Heart's Sunday newspaper supplement The American Weekly. Artist: J. C. Leyendecker.
December 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
If you hazard a look, you can't blame others for what you see!
___________
Dec 1948 Christmas cover of Heart's Sunday newspaper supplement The American Weekly. Artist: J. C. Leyendecker.
___________
Dec 1948 Christmas cover of Heart's Sunday newspaper supplement The American Weekly. Artist: J. C. Leyendecker.
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
Weird how The Free Press was able to publish all of these without comment from the Washigton University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
December 22, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Weird how The Free Press was able to publish all of these without comment from the Washigton University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Here Fulnecky admits her paper did little more than reflect her personal "opinion" about the topic of a paper she didn't read. That alone should result in a failing grade. It admits failure to do required work and submission reflected no learning of assigned course content. Opinion ≠ learning.
Worth noting that the student admits that she just threw the thing together in 30 minutes without reading the paper she was supposed to be responding to.
December 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Here Fulnecky admits her paper did little more than reflect her personal "opinion" about the topic of a paper she didn't read. That alone should result in a failing grade. It admits failure to do required work and submission reflected no learning of assigned course content. Opinion ≠ learning.
This is so wrong! Graduate students are developing advanced researching, writing, and teaching skills. Teaching errors are learning opportunities. Permanently penalizing a graduate teaching assistant is a betrayal of the university's responsibility to ALL its students!
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university
Graduate instructor who gave failing grade to Samantha Fulnecky no longer teaching at OU
A graduate teaching assistant who gave a University of Oklahoma student a failing grade on a psychology essay will no longer be teaching at the university.
www.koco.com
December 23, 2025 at 6:26 PM
This is so wrong! Graduate students are developing advanced researching, writing, and teaching skills. Teaching errors are learning opportunities. Permanently penalizing a graduate teaching assistant is a betrayal of the university's responsibility to ALL its students!
The thing AI proponents miss is what the work AI purports to do does for actual humans when we do it. A published book or research paper is merely the trace/shadow/footprint of the actual product which is developed in the creators in the act of creation. AI can't produce that in you. Sorry, but no.
I'm currently working on a novel and at the end of an average day, I'm wiped out. The sheer amount of analysis, synthesis, making of connections, layering of prose, deepening of characterization, supplemental research... all the mental work is intense and exhilarating. Which is just to say, fuck AI.
December 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
The thing AI proponents miss is what the work AI purports to do does for actual humans when we do it. A published book or research paper is merely the trace/shadow/footprint of the actual product which is developed in the creators in the act of creation. AI can't produce that in you. Sorry, but no.
Yes, acting is acting *blah blah blah* but casting gay actors to play gay characters gives them work they might otherwise be denied and helps them build lifelong careers in the industry.
Can we please stop pretending homophobia is not alive and well (in Hollywood and among audiences)? #CastTheGays
Can we please stop pretending homophobia is not alive and well (in Hollywood and among audiences)? #CastTheGays
Are the ‘Heated Rivalry’ Actors Gay or Straight? Why the Show’s Creator Says Their Sexuality Doesn’t Matter
Check out the details...
www.justjared.com
December 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Yes, acting is acting *blah blah blah* but casting gay actors to play gay characters gives them work they might otherwise be denied and helps them build lifelong careers in the industry.
Can we please stop pretending homophobia is not alive and well (in Hollywood and among audiences)? #CastTheGays
Can we please stop pretending homophobia is not alive and well (in Hollywood and among audiences)? #CastTheGays
Concerned how the idealization of this type body will contribute to young gay men over-exercising, using steroids, and developing eating disorders in a vain attempt to achieve a physical form that's truly only attainable by a very few... #HeatedRivalry
December 23, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Concerned how the idealization of this type body will contribute to young gay men over-exercising, using steroids, and developing eating disorders in a vain attempt to achieve a physical form that's truly only attainable by a very few... #HeatedRivalry
Smithsonian now under attack. White House: “The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history...."
White House pushes Smithsonian to comply with review to receive federal funding | CNN Politics
The Trump administration has signaled to the Smithsonian Institution that the White House could withhold federal funding from the museum organization if it does not comply with the administration’s un...
www.cnn.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Smithsonian now under attack. White House: “The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history...."
What's the difference between state media and giving government officials a de facto veto over journalism?
December 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
What's the difference between state media and giving government officials a de facto veto over journalism?
Currently writing book about this (gay) artist. J. C. Leyendecker, cover of Success magazine, December 1900. Trained in Chicago and Paris, Leyendecker was capable of beautifully decorative and ornate imagery for books, mags, posters, and ads.
December 21, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Currently writing book about this (gay) artist. J. C. Leyendecker, cover of Success magazine, December 1900. Trained in Chicago and Paris, Leyendecker was capable of beautifully decorative and ornate imagery for books, mags, posters, and ads.
I'm not a tax-ologist but one way the obscenely rich could have an immediate effect is to start giving large, restricted (to direct instruction cost) donations to public colleges and universities. The Ivies don't need anymore of of your money!
December 19, 2025 at 8:11 PM
I'm not a tax-ologist but one way the obscenely rich could have an immediate effect is to start giving large, restricted (to direct instruction cost) donations to public colleges and universities. The Ivies don't need anymore of of your money!
In 2019 I co-edited this textbook designed to support Intro to LGBTQ Studies college courses. Intended to offer a central text for such courses, it's sized to allow course customization with other readings. Unusually, it includes a chapter on LGBTQIA+ sexual behavior and sexual health. #AcademicSky
Living Out Loud: An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture
Living Out Loud: An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture offers students an evidence-based foundation in the interdisciplinary field of LGBTQ Studies. Chapters on history, diversity, da...
www.routledge.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM
In 2019 I co-edited this textbook designed to support Intro to LGBTQ Studies college courses. Intended to offer a central text for such courses, it's sized to allow course customization with other readings. Unusually, it includes a chapter on LGBTQIA+ sexual behavior and sexual health. #AcademicSky
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
I found it. The Bari Weiss/CBS News town hall promo for feminism does indeed use a 1964 photo of Beatles fans.
December 19, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I found it. The Bari Weiss/CBS News town hall promo for feminism does indeed use a 1964 photo of Beatles fans.
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
🧵 With recent direction to the FBI to treat Queer organisations as domestic terrorism, I know there are many LGBTQ ppl looking for options. There are two Irish paths. One is to apply for further education, the other is to look at whether you qualify for Irish citizenship by descent. Here’s more info
December 19, 2025 at 6:02 PM
🧵 With recent direction to the FBI to treat Queer organisations as domestic terrorism, I know there are many LGBTQ ppl looking for options. There are two Irish paths. One is to apply for further education, the other is to look at whether you qualify for Irish citizenship by descent. Here’s more info
1. Feminism is not a *thing.* It's a conversation over time having many different voices.
2. Feminism is primarily a project of women for women. How could "it" have failed them?
3. Globally, women and girls have more rights, security, wealth, education, and power than ever. How is this failure?
2. Feminism is primarily a project of women for women. How could "it" have failed them?
3. Globally, women and girls have more rights, security, wealth, education, and power than ever. How is this failure?
December 19, 2025 at 4:53 PM
1. Feminism is not a *thing.* It's a conversation over time having many different voices.
2. Feminism is primarily a project of women for women. How could "it" have failed them?
3. Globally, women and girls have more rights, security, wealth, education, and power than ever. How is this failure?
2. Feminism is primarily a project of women for women. How could "it" have failed them?
3. Globally, women and girls have more rights, security, wealth, education, and power than ever. How is this failure?
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve been struggling and I’m glad I’m working to get help. I think a lot of us have built up a tolerance for suffering but what if we don’t have to suffer? What if life doesn’t have to feel like it’s killing us? If you have resources that can help, get help.
December 18, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve been struggling and I’m glad I’m working to get help. I think a lot of us have built up a tolerance for suffering but what if we don’t have to suffer? What if life doesn’t have to feel like it’s killing us? If you have resources that can help, get help.
Almost no gender affirmation surgeries are performed on children (and none under age 12) in the U.S. The Trump regime is again lying to scapegoat a tiny minority about an issue most Americans don’t care about. Pure distraction politics and classic fascism.
Gender-affirming surgeries rarely performed on transgender youth | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
A new Harvard Chan School study found little to no utilization of gender-affirming surgeries by transgender and gender-diverse minors in the U.S.
hsph.harvard.edu
December 19, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Almost no gender affirmation surgeries are performed on children (and none under age 12) in the U.S. The Trump regime is again lying to scapegoat a tiny minority about an issue most Americans don’t care about. Pure distraction politics and classic fascism.
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
The war on trans kids is unconscionable and I am filled with rage
December 19, 2025 at 2:02 AM
The war on trans kids is unconscionable and I am filled with rage
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
This procedure is not performed on transgender children. It IS performed on intersex children, often without full knowledge or consent of parents. GOP laws protect this practice.
19thnews.org/2023/03/bill...
openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstreams/6...
19thnews.org/2023/03/bill...
openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstreams/6...
December 18, 2025 at 9:53 PM
This procedure is not performed on transgender children. It IS performed on intersex children, often without full knowledge or consent of parents. GOP laws protect this practice.
19thnews.org/2023/03/bill...
openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstreams/6...
19thnews.org/2023/03/bill...
openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstreams/6...
Reposted by Michael J. Murphy 🏳️🌈
This would be an excellent moment for politicians to stop demonizing universities.
I also thought about this possibility the moment I heard about the MIT thing
December 18, 2025 at 11:44 PM
This would be an excellent moment for politicians to stop demonizing universities.